"Well," she exclaimed, "you"re the most cheerful lot of refugees I ever saw. I came down expecting to find eight frozen corpses stretched on the shining strand, and here you are singing hilarious songs and yelling like a lot of Comanche Indians."
"What are you bringing us, Sallie?" demanded Judy.
"I"m bringing you myself," said Sallie. "I"ve arranged to come down here. They shelved me with a lot of freshies at Martin"s and I said I"d rather be at O"Reilly"s with the Old Guard. So Mr. Murphy brought me down with two sheet-loads of my things and some beds from the hospital, and here I am."
"Hurrah!" they cried again, joining hands and dancing in a circle around Sallie.
""Here"s to good old Sallie, drink her down, Drink her down, drink her down, drink her down!""
After this wild outburst of joy over the return of another wanderer to the fold, Sallie began to remove her outer wrappings.
"I feel like an Egyptian mummy," she remarked as she skinned off two long coats and unwound several scarfs.
"You look like a pouter pigeon," said Judy, "what have you got stuffed in there?"
"Mail," said Sallie, unb.u.t.toning another jacket, "mail for Queen"s. Mr.
Murphy gave it to me when he came to get my things. And, by the way,"
she added, "I saved my rocking chair and sat in it as I drove down to the village. Wasn"t it beautiful? I suppose I"ll be lampooned now as "Sallie, the emigrant." But it was too cold to care much. I was only thankful I had taken the precaution to fill the hot-water bag and the thermos bottle before I started on the drive."
CHAPTER XX.
THE TURN OF THE WHEEL.
Sallie Marks had, indeed, received a royal welcome from her friends.
They were as glad to see her as if she had just returned from a long voyage. Now they poked the fire and made fresh tea and petted and caressed her until her pale, near-sighted eyes were quite watery and she was obliged to wipe the moisture from her gla.s.ses.
"We"ll make out the winter here, girls," she a.s.sured them. "It may take a week to get the house in order, but we can put up with a little discomfort to have O"Reilly"s to ourselves. If they would only strip off this bilious paper and lay a few mattings! The plumbing is better than it was at Queen"s, and the heating arrangements, too."
The room was really very comfortable what with the fire in the grate and the heat pouring up the register.
"It was a defective flue that made old Queen"s go under," observed Katherine sadly, as if she were speaking of a dear friend who had lately pa.s.sed into another life. "I am afraid her heating apparatus was a little second cla.s.s."
"Speak no evil of the dead," admonished her sister Edith.
"_Requiescat in pace_," said Sallie in a solemn voice.
"_La reine est morte; vive la reine_," said Margaret.
"After all, we are really "Queen"s"" said Judy, "so let"s be as happy as we can. Where are those letters, Sallie?"
Sallie unb.u.t.toned the last layer of sweater and drew out a pile of mail which she distributed, calling the name of each girl.
"Molly Brown," she called, handing Molly a letter from Kentucky.
"Miss Sen, a letter from the Land of the Rising Sun. I hope it will rise warmer there than it set here this evening. Miss Jessie Lynch, a letter addressed in the handwriting of a male. Ahem! Miss Lynch, another letter in the same handwriting of presumably the same male."
Much laughter among those not already absorbed in letters.
"Miss Margaret Wakefield, an official doc.u.ment from the capital of these United States of America. Miss Julia S. Kean, a parental epistle which no doubt contains other things. Miss Molly Brown, who appears to be secretly purchasing a farm."
Sallie handed Molly a long envelope, while the others s.n.a.t.c.hed their letters and turned away. Only Nance had received no mail that day; yet, more than any girl there, she enjoyed corresponding and sent off weekly voluminous letters to her father, her only correspondent except Andy McLean, who was not yet considered strong enough to write letters.
It was with something very near to envy that she watched the faces of her friends as they waded through long family letters with an occasional laugh or comment:
"It"s been ten below at home."
"Father forgot to put in my check. He"s getting very thoughtless."
"My wandering parents are going to Florida. They can"t stand the cold in New York."
"Here"s a state of things," exclaimed Edith, "another book bill for books that were burned. Isn"t that the limit?"
"Yes, and you"ll borrow from me again," said Katherine. "And I shall refuse to lend you another cent. You are getting entirely too crazy about buying books."
n.o.body took any notice of this sisterly dialogue which went on continuously and never had any real meaning, because in the end Katherine always paid her sister"s debts.
Nance"s gaze shifted to Molly, who might have been turned into a graven image, so still was she sitting. She had not opened the letter from home, but the long envelope from the real estate company lay at her feet. In one hand she held a typewritten letter and in the other a long blue slip of paper which, beyond a doubt, was a check. Picking up the envelope, Molly gave a covert glance around the absorbed circle and slipped the check inside. Then she noticed Nance gazing at her curiously. She smiled, and then began to laugh so joyously that everybody stopped reading and regarded her almost anxiously. There was a peculiar ring of excitement in her voice.
"Molly, hasn"t something awfully nice happened to you?" asked Nance.
"Why, yes," she answered, "to tell the truth, there has."
"What is it? What is it?" cried the chorus of voices.
Molly hesitated and blushed, and laughed again.
"I don"t think you would believe it if I were to tell you," she said.
"It"s too absurd. I can hardly believe it myself, even after reading the letter and seeing the--the----"
"The what, Molly?" demanded Judy, beside herself with curiosity.
Molly laughed again.
"I"m so happy," she cried. "It"s made me warm all over. The temperature has risen ten degrees."
"Molly Brown, will you explain yourself? Can"t you see we are palpitating to know what it is?" cried Judy.
"I"ve won a prize," exclaimed Molly. "I"ve won a prize. Can"t you see what it means to me? I needed the money and it came. A perfect windfall.
Oh, isn"t this world a delightful place? I don"t mind the cold weather and O"Reilly"s. I"m so happy. I prayed for rain and carried my umbrella.
Oh, I"m so happy, happy, happy!"
"Has the child gone daffy?" said Sallie Marks, while Judy seized the envelope and drew out a check for two hundred dollars made out in the name of "Mary C. W. Brown." Then she opened the letter and read aloud:
""Dear Madam: